Schumer says Bloomberg's gun control ads are a no-go

Senator Chuck Schumer had disparaging words for some of the mayor's dogged efforts in pushing for gun control.

In a recent interview on his negotiating tactics, Schumer, who played a big role in the federal background-check legislation that eventually stalled in the Senate last year, told Time magazine he does not think Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control ads are effective in red states—in part, apparently, simply because the ads are coming from the mayor of New York City.

"I'm a law-abiding citizen," the narrator says, after declaring his children are going to be NRA members just like he is. "It'll just affect felons, spousal abusers, people [who are] mentally ill."

"So on this one, I don't agree with the NRA," the narrator concludes.

Schumer reportedly is appreciative of the mayor's efforts to counter the National Rife Association's power, but does not believe money is truly the source of that power, suggesting Bloomberg's efforts to block political donations to the Democrats who voted against background checks are, like the ads, ineffective.

"I've been trying to figure out the power of the NRA," Schumer told TImes. "It's not the money they give out... There are many groups that give much more."

"It's that they have a core group of active members who translate what's going on to the average person—who are sympathetic to them because they're part of their milieu," he concluded.

Schumer suggested that taking such an understanding approach—"walk[ing] in the other guy's moccasins"—could help as a strategy in the Israel-Palestine conflict as well.